PowerColor PCS HD7870 MYST Video Card Review – Tahiti LE

Temperature & Noise Testing

Temperatures are important to enthusiasts and gamers, so we took a bit of time and did some temperature testing on the PowerColor PCS HD7870 MYST 2GB video card.

PowerColor PCS HD7870 MYST 2GB Idle Temperature:

The PowerColor PCS HD7870 MYST 2GB video card had an idle temperature of 31.0C in a room that was 22.0C (72F). Not bad temperatures at all for a card with a Tahiti LE core with over 4 billion transistors!

When it comes to temperature testing the PowerColor PCS HD7870 MYST was on par with the AMD Radeon HD 7870 GHz edition at idle, but and is slightly hotter at load. Peaking at 73C during long gaming sessions isn’t bad at all and it looks like the custom GPU cooler and 92mm fan get the job done. That said, we could hear the video cards fan when gaming!

Sound Testing

We recently upgraded our sound meter to an Extech sound level meter with ±1.5dB accuracy that meets Type 2 standards. This meter ranges from 35dB to 90dB on the low measurement range, which is perfect for us as our test room usually averages around 36dB. We measure the sound level two inches above the corner of the motherboard with ‘A’ frequency weighting. The microphone wind cover is used to make sure no wind is blowing across the microphone, which would seriously throw off the data.

When it comes to noise levels the PowerColor PCS HD7870 MYST was very quiet at idle and comparable when gaming to the AMD Radeon HD 7870 GHz edition card with the reference GPU cooler design.